Question

A 35-year-old lady comes for a consultation. She is worried since both her parents are on treatment for diabetes. She seeks advice from you in taking care of her health.
What is screening, what are the attributes of a good screening test?

Hint:

A test with high sensitivity is useful in screening to ensure that those with the disease are not missed, while high specificity ensures that healthy individuals are not falsely diagnosed.

Answer 1

A good screening test is one that accurately and consistently identifies individuals who are at risk or have the disease. It must be sensitive, specific, and acceptable to the population, and should offer good cost-effectiveness for large-scale screening programs.
Screening is the process of identifying individuals who may have a particular disease or condition before they develop symptoms, through the use of tests or exams. The goal is early detection and intervention.

Step 1: Attributes of a Good Screening Test
A good screening test should have the following attributes:
- Sensitivity: The ability of the test to correctly identify individuals with the disease (true positive rate). A test with high sensitivity reduces the risk of false negatives.
- Specificity: The ability of the test to correctly identify individuals without the disease (true negative rate). High specificity minimizes false positives.
- Accuracy: The proportion of all true results (both positive and negative) among all cases examined.
- Reliability: Consistency in results when the test is repeated.
- Cost-effectiveness: The benefits of screening should outweigh the costs, especially in large-scale population screening programs.
- Acceptability: The test should be well-accepted by the population being screened, meaning it should be simple, non-invasive, and cause minimal discomfort.